Review: “Rory Scovel Tries Stand-Up For The First Time” on Netflix

You know and I know and Rory Scovel knows this is not his first attempt at stand-up comedy, but the title offers up a fun misleading click for new fans on Netflix, as well as an opportunity for Scovel and director Scott Moran to have fun imagining what goes through a rookie comedian’s mind before, during and after his/her first time onstage.

Scovel has proven himself brave and talented enough to come out in character before without ever letting the audience in on the act. Not so, this time. Instead, Scovel launches right into a bit asking audience members at Atlanta’s Relapse Theater a very specific and highly intimate question, turning into a stern interrogation, only briefly putting himself in the minds of his audience, wondering: “ ‘Wait, so is this the show?’ This is the show. This is the show.”

He continues unabated.

“I have one joke, and I’m halfway through it,” he says. “I do sort of a reverse Louis CK. I write one new joke a year. And this is actually a three-year-old joke. So, should be a pretty good special.”

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Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.